Letter to the editor (May 7, 2014)Back to the Future I read with interest Mr. Oakes description of yesterday’s Russellville — easy to cross the street, walk to shops, bicycle to work, allow the buses to run on time and make it safer to walk to and from train stations. Now in the 21st century we travel in private automobiles to quickly and safely get from point A to point B. We need the 12-foot lanes to negotiate the streets safely as well as get our school buses to school safe...

Some of Pryor’s prior positionsIn one of Sen. Mark Pryor’s latest campaign ads, a Little Rock woman named Linda looks into the camera from her kitchen table and calls his opponent, Rep. Tom Cotton, “a real threat to your retirement” because he has voted to turn Medicare into a voucher system and has voted to raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare to 70. She’s right about at least the voucher part. Forcing seniors to buy private insurance with help from a...

No shift in Arkansas death penalty fightLITTLE ROCK — Nearly a decade has passed since Arkansas executed anyone on death row, and the state’s governor says he would abolish the death penalty is legislators ever sent him such a bill. The state’s top attorney called the death penalty system broken, and a botched execution in a neighboring state has reopened the debate nationally over executions. It’s the type of climate that should hearten death penalty opponents in Arkansas, but ther...

Balloting begins, voter ID law gets test in courtWell, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten us into. That’s a slight adaptation from Oliver Hardy’s signature comment to his sidekick, Stan Laurel, often delivered during the misadventures of Laurel and Hardy. The phrase applies to the mess created by the Arkansas Legislature in passing Act 595 of 2013, which established a new requirement that each voter produce photo identification before being allowed to cast a ballot. The law’s constitutio...

Letter to the editor (May 5, 2014)Minimum Wage Increase President Obama is trying to get Congress to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Think for a moment about the things you normally buy. If one of them increased in price by 40 percent would you keep buying the same amount of that item as you do now? I doubt it. That is exactly what Obama's min wage increase is. A 40 percent increase in the price of employees. Are business owners going to hire as many workers at...

RussVegas Half Marathon a crowning momentFor those citizens of Russellville and the Arkansas River Valley area who did not observe, volunteer or simply consider the magic or magnetism of this half-marathon event that occurred on Saturday, April 26, you truly missed one of the most spectacular occasions in our history. I mean, it was up there. It is historical and is the kind of event that will secure a place of thrills and excitement for many more years for the River Valley. I will c...

Sharks in the waterSince I’m planning a trip to Florida this summer, I thought it’d be a perfect time to tell you about sharks and how horrible (and awesome) they are. There are a lot of shark experts walking around thanks to The Discovery Channel and Shark Week, but Shark Week seems to recycle the same five or six facts each year and sticks them between dramatic re-enactments of people being eaten. “Sharks only attack people because they confuse you with their ...

Political campaign money as it impacts freedom of speechA majority of the United States Supreme Court seems to have an obsession with the First Amendment freedom of speech and its relationship to money. Their point seems to be that it takes money to pay for media, and media is necessary for freedom of speech. What they fail to say is those people and corporations with the most money have an advantage in the promotion of speech (which is not free). This debate seems to be a throwback to the early 19...

Strength and recoveryLast year, Arkansas had an unusually calm year for tornado activity. It was a nice reprieve, but we knew it wouldn’t last. On the night of April 27, powerful storms tore through Central Arkansas. A high-end EF4 tornado devastated Mayflower and Vilonia, and stayed on the ground for more than 40 miles through three counties. Fifteen Arkansans lost their lives, making it the deadliest day for twisters in our state since the storms of March 1, 199...

Precious Lord, hold my handIf you have ever heard and appreciated the song “Precious Lord” reported to have been written and sung by Tommy Dorsey, the big band leader, you will enjoy a story I read about it some time ago. There is an unusual twist to this story and I will tell it to you at the end of the column. The story begins, “Back in 1932, I was a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie, and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago’s south side. One hot August af...

Hot, long summer coming up this yearJune 21 is officially the first day of summer, but — as happens during any election year — the heat is going to set in well before then. It’s going to be a long, hot spring and an even longer, hotter summer. Unless things are going swimmingly, mid-term elections are never easy for the party of a sitting president. If they are not, then the inclination of the electorate is to split the power between the political parties of the president and th...

Elizabeth Warren’s biggest mistakeI was only up to Page 9 of “A Fighting Chance” when my jaw dropped. “OMG,” I wrote in my notes. “She gave up full scholarship to GW to get married at 19.” “She,” as in Sen. Elizabeth Warren, consumer activist and scourge of Wall Street. “GW,” as in George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, is a populist gale force, and that’s what I had intended to write about in discussing her new book. But I kept c...

Cleaning skeletons out of the political closetWith Europeans intrigued by America’s unexpected success, Alexis de Tocqueville carried out an in-depth study of the new nation in the 1830s. He was quite impressed with our divided government, which featured the separation of powers. This structure made it difficult for any one branch — executive, judicial or legislative — to acquire too much power and run roughshod over the other branches and the will of the American people. Unfortunately, t...

Letter to the editor (April 30, 2014)Health Expo a success On behalf of the River Valley Senior Networking Group, we wish to thank all the vendors who contributed to the success of the River Valley Health Expo held on April 11. We had a good turnout from the community, and we attribute that success to the exhibitors. We send a special thanks to Zumba Gold Instructor Kathleen Cooney, Sound Advice Hearing, the Russellville Lions Club, Ease Massage Therapy, Saint Mary’s Regional Med...

Walkers seek home for every waiting childNear midfield at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium Saturday stood displayed the photos of 140 children. Their ages and races differed, and the snapshots revealed their unique personalities. But they had this in common: They all are waiting to be adopted. The Arkansas Heart Gallery is a coordinated effort involving the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services and Project Zero, an organization seeking a home for every child in Arkansas...

Letter to the editor (April 29, 2014)RussVegas half marathon I would like to commend the organizers of the Russvegas 1⁄2 Marathon held this past weekend in Russellville, generally, for their foresight to conceive the idea, and to go forward with it. Generally it was well organized. However, I would like to complain about the insult toward the elderly people who trained, ran and completed the race (faster, in many cases, than some who were 50 or more years younger than them). Who ...

Letter to the editor (April 29, 2014)Power outage Thank you, Entergy, for the quick response to the outage in Carden Bottom. It may have been a lot more widespread, I don’t know, but I would rather face a short while without power than have to face the heartache that families in Mayflower and Vilonia are dealing with this morning. Our prayers to all them. Rev. Wayne Bookout Pontoon

Parties eye boost from voter ID debateLITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County judge’s decision to strike down Arkansas’ voter ID law complicates planning for a primary that would have been the first statewide test of new voting restrictions, and reopens a debate that Democrats and Republicans both see as having an upside in this fall’s election. Ruling in a case that had focused on a narrow portion of the law, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox declared the requirement that voters show p...

Extra crispy: French fry truck burns in MaineA tractor-trailer carrying 40,000 pounds of french fries caught fire in a Wal-Mart parking lot in the Maine city of Waterville. The city’s fire chief said overheated brakes were the suspected cause of the blaze night blaze in the middle of the busy parking lot. The driver said he pulled over when he smelled smoke from the back of the truck. The Portland Press Herald reported nobody was injured in the fire. The driver was on his way from the Ca...

The night Dylan sold outJuly 24, 1965 — Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival. By this time, Dylan had been labeled “the voice of a generation” for songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin.’” Dylan wore an electric guitar across his chest and was backed by Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, Al Kooper on organ, two of Bloomfield’s bandmates from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Barry Goldberg on piano. It was not the Dylan t...